When a Minnesota man listening to music in his car failed to stop for police after allegedly running a red light, it ended with approximately 12 shots fired, the driver fatally shot with a knife in hand and a Minnesota interstate shut down with protesters.
“(Brian) had suicidal thoughts. That was it. He had it all planned out,” his brother Joshua Quinones told WCCO radio. “That was his plan.”
Brian Quinones, 30, of Richfield, was recording himself on Facebook live at about 10:20 p.m. Saturday when he reportedly ran through a red light near York Avenue and continued running multiple stoplights, according to the Star Tribune newspaper.
Quinones was driving through Edina, a city about 10 miles southwest of Minneapolis, into the neighboring city of Richfield, when authorities began to chase him, the newspaper reported.
Police eventually forced Quinones to a stop near E. 77th Street and Chicago Avenue.
Quinones can be seen in the Facebook video driving and repeatedly looking in his rear-view mirror as flashes of red-and-blue lights color the recording.
He bobbed his head to the radio and sung along to Nipsey Hussle’s “Blue Laces 2” as well as other songs from the late rapper.
Quinones, an aspiring rapper himself, went by the name “Blessed The MC” and released a new album called “T.I.M.E. (This Is My Everything)” the same day he died. He posted the album on Facebook and wrote, “I Pray You Treasure It … My Hearts Inside It,” the Star Tribune reported.
Brian posted “So sorry” before starting the Facebook Live stream, WCCO reported. Joshua told the news outlet his brother texted him those same words before the two talked on the phone.
“I heard the sadness in his voice,” Joshua told WCCO.
Joshua said when he hung up: “I told my sister we gotta go to the apartment. We gotta go to (Brian’s) apartment and see if he’s OK. We went over there and he wasn’t there and then that’s when my sister went on Facebook and he had the Facebook Live. She was texting him like, ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’”
Joshua told WCCO he feels officers should have used a Taser to subdue his brother instead of firing.
Hussle’s “Double Up” was playing when the man was shown on video suddenly stopping his car and jumping out. Officers have said he had a knife in his hand at the time.
They can be heard screaming in the background before they rushed forward with their guns drawn, the Star Tribune reported.
At least six gunshots can be heard on the recording before a pause followed and a round of about six more shots continued.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” officers can be heard screaming over the music in the video.
Quinones’ phone continued recording for another 97 minutes as police secure the scene behind an apartment complex, the Star Tribune reported.
Mill City Citizen Media posted a shortened version of the recording on YouTube.
A statement early Sunday from Edina and Richfield police said no officers had been injured in the incident.
“The Edina and Richfield police departments express our thoughts and prayers to all those involved in this tragic incident,” officials said in the statement on Facebook.
Sean Gormley, the executive director of Law Enforcement Labor Services, the union representing Richfield officers, said in a statement to the Star Tribune that the facts in the case aren’t yet known and investigators must be allowed to do their job.
“These are some of the most difficult scenarios officers will ever face in their careers,” he said. “No officer ever reports for duty hoping to be involved in something like this.”
That didn’t stop demonstrators from marching onto I-494 West at around 7:40 p.m. Sunday to protest the officers’ use of deadly force rather than alternatives like Tasers, according to multiple reports on Twitter.
The protest started as a candlelight vigil for Quinones, with demonstrators carrying signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “HOW MANY MORE.”
It evolved into a protest temporarily blocking westbound lanes of the interstate.
“Sad I can’t be back home tonight. Brian Quinones did not have to die,” Tony Webster said on Twitter. “Not a single officer was injured, and he’s shot and killed within ~17 seconds. Meanwhile, mass shooters are routinely arrested without a scratch on them.
“We are broken.”
